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Anora dropped her book to the floor and just sat there staring blankly at Cailan. She would have as soon expected a darkspawn to walk into the room as her now ex-husband. A minute later, she reclaimed her senses and remembered that he was the king of Ferelden, while she was now merely a lady. If she ever hoped to have power again, it would likely be due to his influence. She rose, gave him a charming smile and said, "It's good to see you, Cailan."
He smiled back, looking for all the world like the boy she'd played with as a child. She'd led him about then easily enough. She wondered whether she could convince him to do what she wanted as simply now. "It's good to see you too," he said, taking her hands when she rose and kissing her on the cheek in greeting. "You see," he said. "I have a huge problem, one that only someone with your experience has even a hope of solving."
Anora nodded. She liked solving problems. It was what she did best, and she never failed at a task once she set her mind to it. "What is it?" she asked.
"You see," Cailan said. "I'm engaged to Elissa Cousland."
Anora nodded. She had heard rumors to that effect, after his engagement to Empress Celene was ended because too many nobles complained that a marriage between them was tantamount to handing the country over to Orlais. "Go on."
"The thing is," Cailan said. "She's a virgin. And I don't want to hurt her during our first time. So I thought that you could help with that.
Anora remembered her wedding night with Cailan. It had been rather uncomfortable, although she blamed that more on how drunk the two of them were than on any lack of experience on Cailan's part. "I don't know that I can help you there," she said. Not that she was even quite sure how she could help him, seeing as she'd always been quite clear about what she liked. She doubted that she could tell him anything now that she hadn't already brought up long ago.
"Oh, but you can!" Cailan said, a bright smile on his face. "I figure that women know what other women like far better than any man possibly could. So I was hoping that you'd take care of things with Elissa for me."
"Take care of things?" Anora echoed. He could not mean by that what she thought he did.
Cailan nodded, looking even more enthusiastic if it was at all possible. "I figured that you could just...help open things up a bit. Relax her. I think that she'd be a lot calmer around another woman than around me. And you really can do amazing things with your fingers and tongue."
Anora stared up at him, wondering how this idea had entered his head. Surely Elissa would be as shocked as she was if she heard her husband explaining how she ought to let another woman make love to her. But as her mind seized on that thought, Anora came up with a brilliant plan. If she let Elissa tell Cailan no, rather than her, Elissa would look like the villain while she would look like the kind wife who was willing to do anything for the love of her life, even if they were no longer married. This could well be the first step in ending Elissa's engagement and thus convincing Cailan that adoption was the best method of dealing with the succession. "Well, that does make a certain amount of sense," Anora said. She tried to ignore how excited Cailan looked about the idea that she might be willing to do this task for him. "And of course I would do anything in my power to help out the crown. But has Elissa agreed to let me 'take care of things'?"
Cailan shook his head. "But I know she will, if you just accept," he said. "She's a huge fan of yours, so I can't imagine that she'd object to you…helping her out. And I can't imagine that anyone turn down such a wonderful opportunity, particularly when we're going to all this trouble for her sake."
Anora had a feeling that Elissa would do more than resist. But better to let her be the one to say no to the king than Anora. She gave her most appealing smile, "Then if she agrees, I'd be delighted to help both of you out. But she does have to agree. I refuse to touch an unwilling to woman."
Cailan hugged her close to him, and it took a long several seconds before he released her. "I don't know why I ever divorced you," he said. "You really are the most amazing and most extraordinarily understanding woman in the world." He leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. "I'll ask her about it right now."
Anora smiled at the thought of sweet, virginal Elissa being asked to go through with this. It was not hard to look suitably excited about the fight that was sure to follow this revelation on Cailan's part. With only a little bit of luck, it would be mere hours before Cailan was back at her house, explaining how his engagement had ended, and begging Anora to take him back. She congratulated herself on her cleverness as she watched Cailan leave her father's estate.
DA:O
Anora would love to know how Cailan had managed to convince Elissa to agree to his insane request. But he had, and Anora did not intend to shirk her duty just because Elissa's decision was different than anticipated. She entered the room to find Elissa sitting nervously on the bed. Cailan crossed the room to greet her, giving her a hug and a soft kiss on the forehead.
"Are you sure you don't want to wait until you're actually married for this?" Anora asked. Perhaps one of the two of them would reconsider after being given a few months to consider the ridiculousness of their request.
"I think that it will be less stressful for Elissa if we do this now," Cailan said. He glanced quickly at his betrothed, before his attention returned to his former wife. "I imagine that we will have a lot to drink at the wedding, and we'll have to consummate the marriage then. I don't want all that pressure then when there's so little now. Plus," his eyes lit up as he said this. "If it doesn't quite work out this time, we'll have several months to get it right."
He was willing to give her several months to "get it right"? In that case, there was no easy way out. Well, Anora had done things that were far more difficult than this, and if this was what it took to stay in the good graces of the king, she'd do what it took. She gave her warmest smile and asked, "How did you want me to start?"
Cailan seemed to think for a long second before saying, "I think that it would make most sense if you um, prepared Elissa over on the bed. Then I'll finish the task after you give the word."
"You're going to watch me as I do this?" Anora asked, feeling her face flush. She had expected many things, but she was not prepared for an audience.
"Of course," Cailan said. He gave the same slightly naughty smile he'd given her father when Loghain had caught the two of them destroying the wine cellar as children. "It's a terrible sacrifice to have to sit and watch, true. But I can't have you get her all prepared just for me to be somewhere far away. Then by the time I returned, she might be…not so ready any more. And you'd have to go to all that work again."
Anora nodded. In a deranged way, his logic did make sense. And it would not be that much harder to "prepare" Elissa in front of Cailan than to do this task on her own. Besides, she'd been raised with Cailan since both of them were children, so she was nearly as comfortable with him around as she was alone. She glanced over at Elissa. The girl was wearing just her shift, glancing between the two of them nervously. The poor thing. She was the only virgin here, after all. It was up to Anora to relax her. She smiled at Elissa and said, "I think that I should get into something a bit more comfortable if I am to…help you out. Would you be willing to help me out of my dress?"
Elissa's eyes widened, but a second later, she was beside Anora, unlacing her girdle, and pulling her long silk dress over her head. It wasn't much longer before the two women stood facing each other, wearing nothing more than their shifts.
Here went nothing, Anora thought, as she leaned down and pressed her lips to Elissa's. They were soft beneath her, far more so than Cailan's had ever been, and they parted at her insistence. The girl tasted of the wine she'd had at dinner, and her hair smelled sweet and clean. Anora let her hands brush down her back to her waist, and held her close. When they parted, Elissa was breathing heavily, and Anora found herself slightly giddy as well.
"That was...very nice," Elissa said. Her limpid brown eyes gazed up at Anora with utter sincerity.
"Thank you," Anora said. And, since she supposed that it was her duty to relax Elissa further, lowered her head and kissed her once more.
From there, it was not so difficult to get Elissa's shift pulled over her head, and the girl lying on the bed. Anora straddled her body, letting her fingers drift over the soft curves of Elissa's body. She leaned over to kiss a breast, and let her tongue swipe over a nipple, just to watch Elissa wriggle beneath her, rubbing against the sensitive flesh between Anora's thighs. It felt peculiarly delightful, and caused Anora to briefly lose her train of thought.
But, no, she had a job to do. And she would do it well. Anora let her lips trail from Elissa's collar bone to her stomach, then set a hand between her thighs.
"Spread your legs," she said, using one finger to stroke the cleft between Elissa's thighs while the other pushed the other girl's knees apart. "This will hurt less if you're as open as possible."
Elissa gave her a pleading look, as though she wanted one last attempt to defend her nebulous virtue, before she did as Anora asked. She rewarded Elissa by licking a finger, and using the moisture to lubricate its passage about the folds of her sex. The other girl gasped, and let her head lean back into the pillows.
"That feels amazing," Elissa said, between whimpers. Anora would hope so. She was not doing this to hurt, after all. The girl might be her replacement. But beyond that, she was a soft, sad little thing who was likely to be cast aside in a few years when she failed to produce an heir. Anora might as well give her a degree of pleasure tonight, considering how easy it was to do.
She leaned down to kiss between Elissa's thighs, letting her tongue and fingers work in unison until Elissa was writhing and whimpering on the bed. Her cries grew louder a second before she tensed then relaxed into the pillows that covered the bed.
"That was amazing," Elissa said, after she'd caught her breath.
Anora would hope so. She did not aim to be mediocre. "There's still more to come," she said. She'd thought that she'd like to give Elissa pleasure prior to doing anything that might cause even the slightest degree of pain.
Elissa nodded. "If it's like that, I can't say I'll mind," she said.
"It will be," Anora said. "Lie back down." She shifted her position to get comfortable before beginning again. She glanced back at Cailan, who was watching what was going on between them with far too much interest. Well, in a bit longer, she'd be done, and he could do what he wished with his betrothed. It would no longer be her concern then, and she would have done as she'd promised. She waited for Elissa to get comfortable, before trailing a hand up her thigh.
Anora teased the outer lips of Elissa's sex until the girl whimpered and begged for more. At her pleas, Anora slid a finger into her, crooking it against the warm, wet flesh. She wriggled her finger until it could move freely before adding a second, then a third. She was just about to call Cailan to do whatever he was intending, when she felt a hand trail from her neck down to her waist.
It was enough to distract her from what she was doing.
"Can I help?" she heard Cailan whisper by her ear.
"She's all ready for you," Anora said, shifting her weight so that she could stand. Cailan's hands moved to her waist, holding her so that she could not move from her current position.
"I'd rather have you," she heard Cailan say, close to her ear. One of his hands reached about her waist, the fingers trailing towards her groin.
Anora stiffened. This what not what she had come here to do. But then her mind ran through a dozen possibilities and wondered if there wasn't some way of turning this to her advantage. She turned her head, just to be caught in a kiss, and let Cailan hold her like that for several long seconds as she debated the best course of action.
In the end, Anora perhaps went for the most appealing, rather than the wisest choice. She let Cailan pull her chemise up about her waist, and have her there, as she continued to elicit whimpers and sighs of delight out of Elissa. She felt Elissa shudder a final time, which was good, as she was couldn't find the willpower to focus on the other woman considering what Cailan was doing to her. His hands caressed her while he thrust into her from behind. And despite that she was sure it seemed wanton, she met each of his thrusts with her own, trying to push him faster and deeper into her, in a desperate attempt for him to reach all of her most sensitive spots.
She reached her culmination just before he did, and stayed sprawled on the bed even as he collapsed on her, kissing the back of her neck and stroking her hair. When their breathing slowed, she felt him pull her into an embrace, as Elissa sat on the bed and stared at both of them in shock.
"I've missed you," Cailan whispered into her ear, as Elissa's eyes grew wider. She glanced between the two of them before rising from the bed.
"I don't want to marry someone who's in love with someone else," she said, her pretty face in a pout. Her complaint really made no sense, Anora thought. Sex had nothing to do with love, and love had nothing to do with marriage. But Elissa was young and still likely had romantic dreams about what it would be like to be queen of Ferelden. Anora watched as Elissa reached for her chemise, and pulled it over her head before finding her shoes and her robe and storming out the door.
Anora shifted so that she could see what Cailan thought of all of this. She doubted that Elissa's flounce was the outcome he desired for this evening, considering why he had asked her to join him. But rather than look upset, he seemed calm, even at peace with what had just happened. He pulled her into an embrace, and kissed her again on the lips. "If she can't handle that," he said after he broke the kiss. "She'd never be able to stand being married to me."
That was probably true, Anora thought. After all, during their marriage, she had put up with far, far worse on many occasions. She felt him tighten his arms about her, and let him hold her that way as he settled into a nap.